Exploiting Paradise

Bali was now part of the Dutch East Indies, a small island in an archipelago as large as the United States. The main royal houses were decimated, bereft of their power and, Soon, impoverished: the sponsorship of the arts shifted to the village communities.
Hoping to make up for the emotion stirred at home by the puputan, the Dutch embarked on a policy of preserving and exploiting Balinese culture. They opened shipping routes to bring in wealthy travelers, many of them famous artist or scholars, like Charlie Chaplin or Margaret Mead, attracted by garish images of “the island of the gods.” Coming on the KPM (Dutch Royal Lines) the tourist would land in Buleleng, drive to Denpasar in a limousine and be welcomed with dances at the Bali Hotel. Later came the trip to Ubud, a small principality that had escaped the Dutch destruction since its mother kingdom, Gianyar, had voluntarily rejoined the colony. Some of these visitors stayed on the island, mostly in Ubud and Sanur. Paramount among these were painters Walter Spies and Rudolf Bonnet, who contributed to the renaissance of Balinese dance and fine arts.